New Delhi, Aug 2: The LG office on Friday alleged AAP leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, of issuing “patently false deliberately, misleading and blatantly improper” statements that a woman and her child drowned in a DDA drain.
The AAP leaders have alleged that the deaths of the woman and her child in East Delhi on Wednesday evening took place after they fell into a drain of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on Wednesday evening and demanded the resignation of the LG, who is chairman of the Authority.
The AAP has also announced a protest at the LG office on Saturday.
“While this is undoubtedly another example of abuse and scoot typical of the AAP and its leadership, the fact of the matter is that the drain in which the unfortunate incident of drowning happened at Khoda colony belonged to the MCD under the control of AAP,” said the LG office.
The 1,000-metre drain was neither desilted nor covered, it claimed.
The total length of the drain is 1,350 metres, out of which 1,000 metres falls in the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which was handed over to it by the DDA on April 17, 2023, the LG office said.
“AAP MP Sanjay Singh, MLA Kuldeep Kumar, party spokesperson Priyankar Kakkar and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), yesterday issued a patently false, deliberately misleading and blatantly improper statement holding the DDA responsible for the tragic death of a lady and her child by drowning and demanded the Hon'ble LG's resignation. The same set of lies were again peddled today in a press conference by minister Gopal Rai and MLA Kuldeep Kumar”, it charged.
The total length of the drain under DDA control is 350 metres, it said.
“The DDA had de-silted its portion of the drain recently and covered it with concrete slabs on the full 350 metre-long section,” the LG office said.
A steel screen was fixed by the Authority at the MCD-DDA junction of the drain to block garbage flow, it said.
The AAP, in a statement, claimed that the drain, which falls under the jurisdiction of MCD, transferred by the DDA, ends 25-30 meters away from the accident spot.
“The drain maintained by DDA is at the entrance of the market, covered by RCC slabs, had an open manhole in which the child and the mother fell,” it claimed.
The LG should stop “misleading” the public, and accept accountability and announce compensation for the bereaved family, AAP said.
The bodies of the victims were recovered at the junction point of the MCD and DDA drain, where a steel screen was placed by DDA to prevent garbage flow, said LG office statement.
“It is unfortunate, to say the least, that the AAP and its leaders have once again indulged in shameless blame game even in the wake of tragedies involving the death of people,” it charged.
